St Neot

St Neot is a village on the southern edge of Bodmin Moor, named after the Saxon monk Saint Neot. According to local legend, the saint’s holy well contained three fish, and an angel told him that as long as he ate no more than one fish a day, their number would never decrease. The holy well can still be found near the village.

The 15th-century parish church of St Anietus is the main reason visitors seek out the village. It contains 16 medieval stained glass windows, mostly from the 15th and 16th centuries, with some glass restored in the 1820s. Historic England describes them as “high quality,” and the church is reported to hold the second largest collection of medieval windows in an English parish church. The church itself is built of ornate granite, and the building alone draws visitors interested in ecclesiastical art.

The village sits in the valley of the River Loveny, with walking routes leading north onto the open moor. A popular circular walk follows two valleys through the parish. Golitha Falls, 2 miles upstream, is a National Nature Reserve where the young River Fowey rushes over boulders through ancient oak woodland. The cascades run through a steep-sided valley with a waymarked trail - the site is free to visit and can be entered at any hour, though daylight is advisable. The Minions heritage area, with its Bronze Age stone circles and the Cheesewring rock formation, is about 7 miles north-east. Carnglaze Caverns, a former slate mine open to visitors, is a little under a mile west of the village.

St Neot’s position on the moorland edge means the landscape shifts quickly from the sheltered, wooded river valley around the village to open heath and granite tors within a short drive or walk. The village has a pub, the London Inn, a 16th-century coaching inn beside the church, and a village shop.